The Modern Novel

Biography

Jonathan Lethem has been much hyped and fairly well praised. Any writer who is essentially a science fiction writer but who is not marketed as such obviously has something going for him. Lethem undoubtedly has a fascinating and weird imagination. Unfortunately, his writing skills leave much to be desired. His characters are wooden and uninteresting. His plots are unconvincing. Reading Lethem is rather like finding a very attractive sex partner but, when it comes to the clinch, you both leave each other very unsatisfied. Frankly, when reading Lethem, I had no desire to see what happened next, no interest in the characters. I just wanted it to be over so I could read a real book.

Perhaps it’s me. He has certainly been well promoted. Gun, with Occasional Music has been optioned for a film, though they seem to be taking their time about making it. He has clearly been influenced by the right authors – Philip K. Dick, J G Ballard, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut and co. He went to Bennington with Bret Easton Ellis/, Jill Eisenstadt, and Donna Tartt. But none of this makes for a great writer. He’s fashionable. He’s trendy. He will fade away.

Lethem was born in 1964 in Brooklyn, His father was a painter and his mother a political activist. He went to Bennington College but dropped out, hitchhiking around the United States and working in book shops, before becoming a successful writer. In 2011, he became Roy E. Disney Professor in Creative Writing at Pomona College, replacing David Foster Wallace.

Other websites

His homepage
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem
Overrated Writers, Part Four: Cormac McCarthy and Jonathan Lethem
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism (article by Lethem)